One of the common tasks performed by a network management infrastructure of a telecommunications network is the set-up and configuration of a connection between routers. Examples of two types of connections between routers are shown in FIG. 1.
A first router 100 is connected with a second router 120 over a connection 110. The first router 100 has a first network interface 105 while the second router 120 has a second network interface 125. The connection 110 between the two network interfaces 105, 125 typically is one of two types of connection. The first type has GRE (generic routing protocol) transport 146 over which a service tunnel or SDP (service distribution path) 144 is maintained. The second has a service tunnel SDP 134 over an MPLS (multi-protocol label switching) path 130 with associated LSP (label switched path) 132.
Independent of any particular user interface, certain tasks need to be performed in order to set-up these types of connections between the first router 100 and the second router 120. These tasks are shown in FIG. 2. At step 200, BGP (border gateway protocol) routing is configured on each routing instance. This is performed by determining if BGP routing is required, and if so, by determining if it has already been established, and if not, enabling it on each routing instance (first and second router) according to configuration settings. At step 210 protocols are configured on each routing instance. This is performed by determining which protocols are required, and by checking which protocols are already established on each routing instance, and for the required protocols not already established, enabling them on each routing instance. At step 220 network interfaces for each routing instance are configured. This is performed by determining if each network interface has already been established on its respective routing instance, and if a network interface has not already been established on its respective routing instance, creating it on its routing instance. For the first router 100 this corresponds to the first network interface 105, and for the second router 120 this corresponds to the second network interface 125. At step 230 the protocols are configured on each network interface. This is performed by checking which of the required protocols are already associated with each network interface, and for the required protocols not already associated with a network interface, associating them with the network interface. At step 240 the MPLS/LSP or GRE transport between the network interfaces is configured on each network interface of the connection. At step 250 the service tunnel or SDP between the routers is created bi-directionally (on each router).
Known NMSs (network management systems) provide for setting-up of the connections by providing user interfaces often GUIs (graphical user interfaces) and less commonly CLIs (command line interfaces) to facilitate performing these individual tasks. The manner is which known GUI systems are structured and how they operate is based largely on the structure and operation of the underlying command line interfaces which were originally in place before the migration to GUIs.
In known systems a GUI is provided for each created router instance, and if BGP (border gateway protocol) routing is required, a GUI is provided for each router instance to configure the BGP Autonomous System (AS), Confederation AS, and Member AS on the routing instance. Another GUI is provided for each routing instance to enable routing protocols such as BGP, MPLS/RSVP (resource reservation protocol), OSPF (open shortest path first), ISIS (intermediate system to intermediate system), LDP (label distribution protocol), and RIP (routing information protocol) as required on the routing instance. Other GUIs are provided to create and configure each network interface on each of the routers. For each network interface another GUI is provided to associate network protocols with the network interface. Yet another GUI is provided for associating the first network interface with the second network interface over MPLS and LSP transport (or alternatively over GRE transport) bi-directionally. Another GUI is provided for associating each LSP to its corresponding MPLS. Finally, a GUI is provided for creating and associating service tunnels or SDPs (bi-directionally) to their corresponding MPLS/LSP or GRE transport. In some known systems, the set-up and configuration of two routers for IP connectivity can require opening and entering data into as many as 60 graphical user interfaces. Such a task can be laborious and time consuming, and usually is inefficient and repetitious. The use of so many different GUI interfaces is a side-effect originating from the slow migration toward the use of GUIs from the use of CLI command interfaces in network management systems which treated router instances, network interfaces, network protocols and their configuration separately. As a result, known GUI systems continue configure the router instances, network interfaces, and network protocols of a connection as though they were unrelated, a type of treatment symptomatic of legacy CLI based systems.